Internal sales documents show Samsung has lost the war for tablet supremacy in the US

Samsung, which once claimed its GalaxyTab shipments were in the millions, saw sales of the devices fall to a paltry 37,000 units in the United States last quarter, suggesting that although Korean electronics maker is holding its own in the battle for smartphone unit share supremacy, it's clearly lost the war it waged against the iPad.

The once closely guarded sales figures from the two companies were forced into evidence this week despite attempts from both sides to keep their respective data private. But they'll be necessary for the jury to see, the court ultimately determined, to quantify the extend of potential damages awarded to either side in the case.

Of particular interest is a large discrepancy in sales for Samsung's tablets between the company's internal sales report and estimated second quarter figures published by IDC last week, which are largely culled from retail sales date supplied in cooperation with the company's who manufacture and ship the products.

IDC reported estimated sales of roughly 2,391,000 GalaxyTabs worldwide during the three-month period ending July while Samsung's internal documents indicate it sold just 37,000 stateside, compared to Apple's 5.7 million iPads. That would imply that a staggering 98.5% of all GalaxyTabs would have to have been sold overseas last quarter —a spread many industry watchers are finding hard to believe.

Potentially even more surprising is the grim picture Samsung's internal US sales data paints for the future of its tablet business on Apple's home turf. Between the second quarter of 2011 and the second quarter of 2012, GalaxyTab sales in the US decline an eye-popping 86% from 266,000 units to just 37,000.

Making matters worse, of those 37,000 GalaxyTabs, over 67% (or 25,000) appear to have been yesteryear and lower-cost closeout models that combined for an average selling price (ASP) of $360. Meanwhile, the company reported moving 6,000 GalaxyTab 10.1 LTE models at an ASP of $545 while eating an estimated $5 million loss on the sale of 1000 non-LTE models.

The same court documents also provide some interesting color on smartphone sales from the two heated rivals. Since its inception in 2007, Apple in the US generated $50 billion in revenue from the sale of 86 million iPhones, while the smartphone models in Samsung's portfolio for which Apple alleges infringement combined for 21 million units and $7 billion in sale.

Also of interest is that Apple's all-time US sales for iPads and iPod touch models have so far totaled 34 million ($19 billion in revenue) and 46.5 million (10.3 billion in revenue), respectively.